Miami-Dade County is a major vegetable growing area in Florida. Common blossom thrips is an important pest of various vegetable crops. This thrips was first recorded in 1993 on Mexican poppy near a vegetable field. Since then, we recorded F. schultzei in vegetable crops every year at a very low number. The high population abundance of S. schultzei was first observed in cucumber in 2008. From 2012, F. schultzei was observed with increasing number in the Groundnut ring spot virus infected pepper and tomato chlorotic spot virus infected tomato fields, causing economic loss. F. schultzei is reported as the vector o tospovirus. In the present research, we studied its population trend and seasonal abundance in variopis vegetable crops. The above informaton is essential for growers to develop an effective management program against F. schultzei and its transmitted tospovrus.
